BUY/CONTACT

BUY/CONTACT

Life with heart disease in western Maine includes wild turkeys in the garden. We ate the second from left for Thanksgiving that year. Just kidding! Wild game is strictly against heart transplant rules!

Jack and I would do anything to keep others safe from what we have gone through. This is why we donate all my book-related earnings—and more—to cardiac causes, especially women and heart disease. Donation recipients include Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, the American Heart Association, the Heart Rhythm Society, WomenHeart, and The SCAD Alliance.

BUY A BOOK AND SAVE A LIFE

AN ARROW THROUGH THE HEART​

I really like the new “revised and updated” ARROW. If you have read the original (published by Simon & Schuster in 2002), you will find this new version deeper and wiser because the ensuing years have given me invaluable knowledge and perspective. The new ARROW is laced with current data and information on cardiac issues, such as SCAD. But ARROW has never been just about a massive heart attack that nearly killed me, a young and fit woman in the prime of life. At its core, ARROW is a deeply affecting (and often funny) story about coming alive again through the process of recovering all of myself—body, mind, and spirit. It’s a story about coming to terms with Impermanence, including my own, during a convalescence that lasted over a year on a lake in western Maine, where life continued in all its insistence and eccentricity.

As many readers have written to me, this little book just might tempt you to give your own busy life some careful reconsideration. I wrote ARROW not only to help prevent cardiac deaths, but also to provoke the kind of self-examination that I did not allow myself when I was so busy in the kingdom of the well, as writer Susan Sontag called normal life. Readers often write me that my little book inspired them to make changes in their own lives, better aligning how they live with who they really are.

Now available as an ebook, ARROW is ready for readers on-the-go—especially young men and women, who still do not understand that heart disease is our #1 stalker. While an ebook is an inexpensive and easy way to buy a book and save a life, I also hope you will support your local bookstore.

PERFECT STRANGER​

My second book—about living with a heart transplant—is not yet available because I am still writing. Stay tuned!

WITH GRATITUDE TO HONI WERNER

The supremely gifted Honi Werner designed the original ARROW cover in 2002. Now retired, Honi donated her artwork for the 2015 revised and updated book.

Available as an eBook at online retailers and at your local bookstore. All my book-related earnings are donated to cardiac causes. So, buy a book and save a life!

TO CONTACT DEBORAH

Before you click “Submit” (below) kindly consider the complications of my medical situation. Though I promise that I will be delighted to hear from you, I may not always be able to email you back. I hope that this website, my Facebook page, and my book(s) speak for my sincere desire to help you, while also protecting my health and privacy. Besides, while cardiac illness occupies my time, it does not define my life, which is filled with people, pleasures, and responsibilities beyond hospitals and the pages of my book(s). I am so happy that people write to me saying that after reading ARROW they feel like they know me; I worked hard to make my situation real for you so that you would take it to heart in leading your own life. So I hope that you will understand that on Facebook I only “Friend” people I actually know. Anyone can “Follow” me, although I have absolutely no idea where I am going! Thank you for your understanding. I hope you will protect your own sacred time on this earth as well as you are helping me to protect mine.

INVITE DEBORAH TO TALK TO YOUR GROUP

Click here on TALKSfor a list of my talks and panel discussions. I am happy to consider your proposal. Since my heart transplant, I live on powerful drugs that suppress my immune system; therefore, I must be selective about appearances. Thanks to Skype, it is now possible for me to join book discussions. Invite me!

A REQUEST OF MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS

I would be grateful to you for reading my book(s) to gain insight into the patient’s experience of cardiovascular disease, hospitalization, and recovery—as well as one patient’s sensible efforts to integrate allopathic and complementary medicine in her healing plan. Please also consider the following:

Give my book(s) to conference or fundraising event participants. Corporate sponsors have been happy to purchase these party favors as their contribution to the American Heart Association and other cardiac organizations.

Include my book(s) in Medical Humanities programs—especially for budding cardiologists and book discussion groups.

HOW CAN YOU HELP RAISE AWARENESS?

Post a link to my website on any social media that you use. I am slowly learning how social media can help save lives, but you are no doubt way ahead of me!

Share my posts with your network.

Recommend my book(s) to friends and book discussion groups.

Give a book to your favorite women for birthdays, holidays, and Valentine’s Day.

Give a book to your physician! Many doctors still forget to tell women that cardiovascular disease is our #1 killer—and the #1 cause of natural death among young women, ages 25 to 44. Ask your physician to recommend ARROW to patients.

Follow the lead of one fan who chose ARROW for inclusion in the gift bag at her class reunion. What a great idea: a party favor that saves lives!